Fear mongering and the NRA

A buddy recently got an invitation from the NRA to join. Did I say invitation? I meant a hard-sell screed designed to scare him into joining. Why should my buddy join?

“Because your firearm freedoms and your hunting and shooting traditions are under attack like never before,” the letter said. “Powerful gun ban politicians like Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Michael Bloomberg and Eric Holder stand ready to fight for a far-reaching agenda that will BAN hundreds of popular rifles, pistols and shotguns, LIMIT the number of guns you can own, RATIFY a U.N. global gun ban treaty, BANKRUPT America’s gun makers and CLOSE our guns shops and shows.”

A U.N. global gun ban treaty? Like much in this letter, it’s simply a lie. FactCheck.org laid this particular one to rest here.

It’s almost as if the NRA doesn’t know what is so obviously true. It’s won. When an alleged cop killer in Texas can own a 90-round ammo drum and the assault weapon to accommodate it, when virtually every state now has a concealed-carry law, when every elected body out there would rather kowtow to than question the NRA and its tactics and when the U.S. Supreme Court translates the 2nd Amendment in such a fashion that even reasonable restrictions become harder to enact (militia? What? That word’s in there?), there really is no other conclusion about who has won. Which means a whole lot of gun victims have lost.

But, you see, keeping the fear alive — making you believe that it hasn’t won and that someone will take your guns — is how the NRA remains powerful enough to cow Congress and state Legislatures.

“Law by law, regulation by regulation, they are determined to strip us of our Constitutional freedoms. If they succeed, firearms ownership and the Second Amendment will disappear, step by step,” says the letter, signed by Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s executive vice president.

And if my buddy doesn’t sign up, well, let’s all blame him for the catastrophe that will ensue because the NRA has one fewer member. “This is your ‘Final Notice.’ We won’t get a second chance to save the Second Amendment.”

The NRA message: Be afraid; be very afraid. The truth: you have reason to be because of how many guns there are out there.

But, hey, if you join within the next 30 days, “you will receive NRA’s Heavy Duty Duffel Bag.”

Reasonable restrictions do not equal someone wanting to take away your hunting rifle. Making you believe that every such proposal represents a slippery slope is what the NRA and this letter is about.